Travel plans/Winter 2014

Tokyo

Feb 8-12: Reserved an Airbnb room in Shinagawa.

Itinerary

We'll definitely check out:

Naoshima

Osaka (Plum wine festival)

Akita (igloo festival)

Tsuyazaki (Shochu distillery/1000gen)

• Day 1

• Day 2

• Day 3

• Day 4

• Day 5

• Day 6

• Day 7

To do

• Onsen (hot spring)
• Artsy villages
• Maybe extreme snow
• Watch kabuki
• Watch sumo
• Buy plates

Ideas of places to go

1) Here is a list of winter festivals in Japan during the time we will be there including:

• Hachinohe Enburi folk festival and dance (Aomori February 17-20)
• A whole series of drift ice festivals in Hokkaido
• Yuki doro snow lantern festival (February 8-11)
• Namahage Sedo child scaring festival (Akita Feburary 7-9)
• Akita Inukko snow dog sculpture festival (Akita Feburary 8-9)
• Yokote snow festival with kamakura and bonden (Akita February 15-17)
• Wave Artists at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum (Tokyo February 19-March 7)
• Amakusa Festival of Food (Amakusa February 15-16)
• 8th Tenmatenjin Umeshu Convention (Osaka February 15-23)
• Tokamachi Snow Festival (Niigata February 14-16) including "giant snow sculptures and stage performances; and the Nakasato Setsugen Carnival, in which a local ski resort is covered in candles to create a surreal, beautiful scene; and the Muko-nage Festival, where young men who have married during the past year are thrown into snowdrifts."
• Kite-flying contest at Tsuda no Matsubara (Kagawa February 9)
• Uesugi Snow Lantern Festival (Yamagata February 7-9)

2) Gods and monsters:

• Yokai town in Sakaiminato, Tottori prefecture, Chugoku region　: http://www.sakaiminato.net
• God's conference town in Izumo, Shimane prefecture, Chugoku region

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Izumo

The conference is in October, so gods won't be around when we go.

• Shibu onsen kanaguya: A model inn for Spirited Away. http://travel.rakuten.co.jp/HOTEL/32044/32044.html

3) Industrial places

• Ashio Kozan in Tochigi, Kanto region(famous for pollution in the past): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashio_Copper_Mine
• Syutoken gaikaku housuiro in Saitama, Kanto region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Area_Outer_Underground_Discharge_Channel
• Shimano Bicycle Museum in Osaka.

4) Nature

• Takachiho in Miyazaki, Kyusyu region: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Takachiho
• Yakushima (World heritage site) in Kagoshima, Kyusyu region: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Yakushima

5) Craftwork

6) Alcohol

• Suntory Yamazaki Distillery in Osaka サントリー山崎蒸留所 http://www.suntory.co.jp/factory/yamazaki/

• Suntory Shirasu Distillery in Yamanashi サントリー白州蒸溜所

• Kirin Karuizawa (wine and whisky) in Nagano

• Asahi Beer factory in many places, including Hakata in Fukuoka and Nagoya in Aichi.

• Many Syochu distilleries in Kyusyu.

1. Food

• Kikkoman Syochu factory tour in Hyogo (http://www.kikkoman.co.jp/enjoys/factory)

• Natto factory in many places including Chiba and Akita.

Note: The government of Japan maintains this list of important intangible folk cultural properties. Several refer to events that occur during our window:

Rokugō Kamakura (六郷のカマクラ行事) in Akita on February 11-15.

the Mona Satoimo Festival (茂名の里芋祭) which is a kind of potato festival in Chiba on February 19-22.

if you like oni, there is the Oni Festival of Toyohashi Shinmei Shrine (豊橋神明社の鬼祭) on February 10-11

the Spring Hoe Festival of Higoshi Shinmei Shrine (樋越神明宮の春鍬祭) on February 11.

Suggested routes

• It takes about 6 hours to get to Fukuoka (northernmost prefecture in Kyusyu) from Tokyo in Kanto area.

Idea 1 (Mika: a bit ambitious) South to North

Day 1: Kagoshima/Yakushima

Day 2: Nagasaki

Day 3: Beppu or Fukuoka

Day 4: Sanuki or Izumo

Day 5: Akita

Day 6: Hokkaido (floating ice tour)

Day 7: Back to Tokyo

Idea 2 (Mika) Mid to South to Mid

Day 1: Nagoya

Day 2: Naoshima

Day 3: Shikoku or Izumo/Sakaiminato

Day 4: Kyusyuu 1

Day 5: Kyusyuu 2

Day 6: Izumo/Sakaiminato or Hida

Day 7: Tokyo

Idea 3 (Mika) Mid to South to North

Day 1: Naoshima

Day 2: Kyusyu 1 (short udon stop in Takamatsu and okonomiyaki stop in Hiroshima)

Day 3: Kyusyu 2

Day 4: Kyusyu 3

Day 5: Osaka

Day 6: Akita

Day 7: Tokyo

Idea 4 (Mika) Mid to South to North

Day 1: Naoshima

Day 2: Kyusyu 1: Kurokawa onsen (short udon stop in Takamatsu and okonomiyaki stop in Hiroshima)

Day 3: Kyusyu 2

Day 4: Osaka

Day 5: Tokamachi (Vaughn to Tokyo)

Day 6: Akita

Day 7: Tokyo

Regions in Japan

• There are 8 main regions in Japan. In general, it's cold everywhere in Feb but it's colder in Chubu, Tohoku, and Hokkaido. There's a mountain range in the middle of Tohoku/Chubu region; west of the mountain range is very snowy.

• There are onsen, temples/shrines, good food, sesame, and vending machines pretty much everywhere. The whole country is made of volcanoes.

Accounting

• Mika: 166GBP for Tokyo Airbnb Feb 8-12.
• Mika: 480GBP for 3 JR pass.